By Zephyria 
In fact, the simplest and most fundamental solution lay closest to home. If Seong Hae-min stopped playing the delinquent, that would be enough.
“So, you don’t have any particular feelings about Jeseong High?”
“But they’re still opponents we have to fight in the ranking matches.”
Those damn ranking matches!
I felt annoyed again. I wanted to grab him and ask if he didn’t know what was truly important. But I couldn’t reveal the information I knew to try and persuade Seong Hae-min.
Firstly, Seong Hae-min’s own will was too firm. Secondly, the content about my own death would be unbelievable even if I told him. Thirdly, even if I told him, I wouldn’t know where to begin or end.
Only my insides were burning black.
“Hey, why do you participate in the ranking matches?”
“Well…”
Seong Hae-min, sensing my sensitive mood, hesitated. Seeing his frustrated look, I became curious about the answer I hadn’t heard before. The reason why he couldn’t quit fighting, even if he could quit riding motorcycles.
“Why do you fight? The Four Heavenly Kings, the ranking matches, why do you do all that? Let me hear the reason.”
“……”
But Seong Hae-min just kept hesitating and couldn’t speak. It was clear from his hesitation that he wasn’t taking time to confess the truth, but was searching for an improvised excuse.
He was the kind of guy who would spill everything out like a string of sausages without being asked, but he became defensive only on this matter, which drove me up the wall.
“Forget it. Don’t say it if it’s difficult.”
Perhaps feeling sorry, Seong Hae-min couldn’t call out to me as I left.
I returned to my room. Only after closing the door did I realize the name of this feeling, like something lodged in my chest.
It was disappointment.
I felt hurt that Seong Hae-min was hiding things from me, keeping them from me.
And I became even more disappointed that I felt disappointed in Seong Hae-min.
‘I know he’s devoted to me, so why am I getting so upset about it….’
Anyway, this wasn’t the information I originally intended to get, so I had to snap out of it. I slapped my cheeks, making a loud thwack.
The important thing now was Do Yun-hyeok and Yeon Su-hwan.
There was a possibility that Yeon Su-hwan was lying, but it was hard to believe that the hatred I saw earlier wasn’t genuine. Those murderous eyes, the furrowed brow muscles, the tightly shut jaw. One couldn’t hate someone to that extent over ordinary matters.
If Seong Hae-min didn’t know, then the other Four Heavenly Kings wouldn’t know either… Who should I get information from? I didn’t know many people in this world.
After much thought, I steeled myself. I took out my mobile phone and sent a text to Ban Seo-yi.
「I have a question. Have you ever been involved with Do Yun-hyeok’s murder?」
The reply came immediately.
「No????????? Are you the type to believe such rumors?????????」
Ban Seo-yi was as sharp as ever, making me look like a fool in an instant. I quickly sent the next question. My typing speed on the Chunjiin keyboard was now as fast as on a QWERTY layout, making this possible.
「Then, do you know why Yeon Su-hwan dislikes Do Yun-hyeok?」
Ban Seo-yi, who had been replying quickly, was silent for a long time after this message. I waited with a fixed posture for Ban Seo-yi’s reply. Tick-tock, tick-tock, the second hand of the alarm clock on my bedside table sounded unusually loud.
As soon as the mobile phone lit up, I swiftly opened the folder and checked the message.
「It’s because of his younger sister」
「Whose younger sister?」
Clutching my mobile phone tightly, I rummaged through my memories.
‘Did anyone have a younger sister?’
A younger sister? But searching my memory was pointless. I only learned about Jeon Jae-hyung’s younger brother after he told me directly. It was impossible for me to know about Yeon Su-hwan or Do Yun-hyeok’s siblings, who were mentioned less than Jeon Jae-hyung in the novel.
The mobile phone lit up once more.
「It’s not something to discuss over text. Let’s meet and talk.」
However, I couldn’t arrange a meeting with Ban Seo-yi right away. Ever since Do Yun-hyeok visited our school, the Four Heavenly Kings had been much more vigilant during my commute and at school.
When I questioned why they were watching me so closely, Seong Hae-min often wore an apologetic expression. This made me suspect that Yeon Su-hwan might have given specific instructions.
And so, by the end of May, the school picnic suddenly approached.
“Class president~ Hand out the parent-teacher communication forms.”
“Yes.”
Called by the teacher, the class president came to the desk and distributed the forms, rolling them out on the desks. I looked at the form, wondering what it was about. It was about the picnic.
「2005 1st Year School Picnic Information」
I have no one to give it to…
I skimmed through the letter, which began with ‘Dear Parents!’.
The thin paper fluttered violently with the slightest breeze from a classmate passing by. I smoothed out the crumpled paper. The other students had already crumpled theirs and put them in their bags, as if it had nothing to do with them since they would take it home anyway. In fact, that was the natural thing to do.
But since I had to look through it carefully with Seong Hae-min when I got home, I skimmed it first and then carefully folded it and put it in my file. I had to deposit the money, check the important notes, and pack my clothes and luggage. While kids whose parents handled everything could go play without a care, Seong Hae-min and I couldn’t.
The destination for this year’s first-year picnic was an amusement park. Perhaps there were no complaints from the academically-minded parents, as it was successfully decided to be an amusement park. I thought a high school picnic would inevitably be to a museum, historical site, or at least a nature experience center.
An amusement park.
It had been a long time. Despite liking rides, I had hardly ever gone to amusement parks.
Come to think of it, something seemed to have happened at an amusement park in the original novel, didn’t it? Or was it not? I rested my chin on my hand and pondered for a moment.
The problem was that incidents seemed to happen wherever these guys went in the novel, so the specific LMO didn’t come to mind clearly.
Did Do Yun-hyeok run into them while the Four Heavenly Kings and Ban Pyo-ran were hanging out? But why would Do Yun-hyeok be encountered at someone else’s picnic spot?
Thinking of Do Yun-hyeok suddenly gave me a headache. That punk with the red hair covered in piercings. The questions about Yeon Su-hwan and Do Yun-hyeok still lingered like resentment. Even the meeting with Ban Seo-yi, who held the answers, was indefinitely postponed due to the Four Heavenly Kings’ interference.
In any case, it was obvious that something would happen on the day of the picnic. So, should I feign illness and not go?
But… honestly, I felt a great sense of regret at the thought of not going.
Putting aside my love for rides, I hadn’t even been on a single school picnic during my high school years. When I first fell into this novel, hadn’t I vaguely thought it would be nice to experience a normal high school life? That was genuine.
As far as I remembered, the last school picnic of my student days was in my first year of middle school. That was a whole six years ago.
It could be called bad luck; epidemics had broken out every other year, canceling picnics and school trips multiple times. And when the times were good, personal issues prevented me from going. Once, I was in a cast and couldn’t move from the hospital, and during my first year of high school trip, my paternal grandfather passed away, so I had to stay at the funeral. For my third-year high school picnic, I used the excuse of studying and stayed at the library for self-study.
That’s why I wanted to go on this picnic. I mean, when else would I get to participate in such school activities if not in my first year?
Even if the Four Heavenly Kings got into trouble at the picnic spot… wouldn’t it be a solvable problem if I just didn’t hang out with them?
I didn’t need friends to have fun. As long as I could ride the attractions well, that was enough. The picnic was too sweet a temptation to give up because of the Four Heavenly Kings or the novel.
With various rationalizations, my heart leaned towards participating. I also resolved to tell Seong Hae-min beforehand that we would go separately.
And today, I set off for home, surrounded by the Four Heavenly Kings. The composition was always the same: Seong Hae-min, Lee Beom, Min Si-hu, Jeon Jae-hyung.
It had been three full months since I got to know them, so I should have gotten used to this group, but whenever my guard lowered, one of them would do something strange, keeping my discipline in check. And the main culprit for these actions was usually Min Si-hu. That was the case today as well.
“Whoosh~ Vroom~ Si-hu’s plane! Taking off! Papa-pa!”
When I packed my things and came out into the hallway, Min Si-hu was playing with a flimsy paper airplane folded from paper.
‘He’s doing that again….’
But Min Si-hu had no way of knowing that I was looking down on him and sighing inwardly, so he remained innocent. Seeing me, Min Si-hu shouted brightly, “Oh! Jjuni is out!” Then he threw the paper airplane he was holding and playing with straight down the hallway.
‘This crazy guy just litters anywhere.’
I clicked my tongue.
However, even if I were a person who strictly followed rules, I didn’t have the dedication to clean up other people’s messes. I casually thought someone would pick it up and throw it in the trash, and I tried to walk past the paper airplane Min Si-hu had thrown as if I hadn’t seen it.
If I hadn’t seen a familiar phrase, I would have ignored it.
「Dear Parents!」
“…A parent-teacher communication form?”
“Ooh?”
I bent down, picked up the paper airplane from the floor, and brushed off the dust. Unfolding it, I saw it was indeed the same form I had received earlier. The one containing the information about the upcoming picnic.
Min Si-hu tilted his head and approached me.
“Wow, what’s in there?”
Seeing his innocent expression, my facial muscles involuntarily tensed. I shook the parent-teacher communication form in my hand and lectured Min Si-hu.
“Hey. Why would you throw it away like that?”
“Why?”
“You have to take it home. It was given out at school. There’s so much important information here!”
Min Si-hu, however, looked completely clueless about what he had done wrong.
Thinking of the countless forms that must have met their end as paper airplanes at Min Si-hu’s hands, I empathized deeply with the teacher who must have received complaint calls from parents asking, ‘Is that true? Did my child do that?’ and my vision went dark.
As if unaware of my feelings, Min Si-hu, who had only blinked his eyes, brought his finger to his mouth.
“Ah, Jjuni doesn’t know.”
“Know what?”
“Si-hu has no one to give this to. No one to receive it!”
Min Si-hu grinned at me, his expression innocent and cheerful. Then, he immediately ran around the hallway, flapping his arms, shouting, “Wow!” Like a 7-year-old child for whom the whole world was mysterious and fun.
“…Huh?”
My delayed reaction came out.
‘Did I just… say something offensive?’